The flights are at the Urban Lab established on Avenida Bélgica and test the improvements applied to the Galileo satellite navigation system
Benidorm hosts new drone flight tests for use in transport within the European Delorean project
The UPV, the Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies and the companies Airbus, Correos, Geonumerics, Bauhaus Luftfahrt and Pildo Labs participate in the Delorean project
These days Benidorm is hosting new flight tests within the European Delorean project, which seeks to lay the foundations for more ecological, safe, and intelligent urban air mobility through the use of drones. As explained by the Councilor for Citizen Security, Lorenzo Martínez, "these flight tests are being carried out again in the so-called Urban Lab established on Avenida Bélgica and which has become an ideal urban setting for this type of test."
Martínez has detailed that "we are entering a new phase of the project, complementary to the one that was already tested in our Urban Lab in April 2021, in which the behavior of the improvements implemented in the Galielo system will be tested from those initial flights and that are aimed at guaranteeing that drones can fly in a completely safe manner”.
The mayor has specified that "Benidorm, due to the high concentration of tall buildings that cause interference and errors in the reception of signals from positioning satellites, is ideal for testing the technology that is intended to be used in the immediate future for flights of drones that will allow the delivery of goods and the transport of people”.
The Benidorm Urban Lab, he added, "intends not only to test the technology that will make urban air mobility possible, but also to prepare the city to be one of the first in Europe to conquer for its citizens and visitors the low-level airspace, the one reserved for drone flights”. Martínez has stressed that "it is an opportunity, since according to data from the European Union, this activity of transporting people and goods by drones can generate some 150,000 jobs until the year 2050, and have an impact of more than 1,500 million euros. economic".
Martínez has highlighted that "we are at a crucial moment", in which "Benidorm is present, being a leader in the development of technologies focused on sustainable mobility and especially that linked to drones".
The Delorean project of the European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) has funding from the European Union and arrived in Benidorm thanks to the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Outstanding institutions such as the Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies (CATEC) and the companies Airbus, Correos, Geonumerics, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, and Pildo Labs participate in it. Benidorm, in turn, is also present as a partner through the Air Unit of the Local police.